Jacksonville Suns win 10th in a row, make playoffs

Suns catcher J.T. Realmuto (left) hugs closer Nick Wittgren after their victory over the Mobile BayBears at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville on Monday that clinched the second-half Southern League South Division title.

The Jacksonville Suns hung on for undoubtedly its biggest win in the last four years when they shut down a ninth-inning Mobile rally for a 6-5 win Monday afternoon, earning Jacksonville the South Division second-half title and a berth into the Southern League playoffs.

After sweeping the five-game series with the BayBears, Jacksonville now travels to Mobile, the South Division’s first-half winner, for the divisional five-game series beginning on Thursday. The first two games will be in Mobile with Game 3 on Saturday at the Baseball Grounds. The Suns would also host Games 4 and 5 (if necessary) with all three games starting at 7:05 p.m.

The Suns won their 10th in a row to close out the season.

The Suns’ trip into postseason play didn’t come without some anxious moments.

Coasting with a 6-3 lead and ace closer Nick Wittgren coming in to pitch, Mobile loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. Brandon Drury then hit a drive to the wall in left field that missed being a grand slam by less than a foot. The ball hit the top of the padded wall and came back into play, where Brady Shoemaker quickly retrieved it to hold the BayBears to two runs, but leaving runners on second and third. Wittgren was then able to induce a routine grounder to second base for the final out. That set off a spontaneous celebration by Suns players who doused each other with champagne and beer near the home plate area.

“This is just fantastic. For us to win the last 10 games of the season and get into the playoffs, it just doesn’t get any better than this,” said Shoemaker.

The Suns outfielder was the biggest contributor, delivering a three-run homer in the fifth inning to give the Suns a 5-2 lead at the time.

Mobile scored once in the sixth to narrow it to 5-3, but Viosergy Rosa answered with what proved to be the difference-maker in the game, a line shot into the rightfield bleachers in the seventh inning for his second home run since joining the Suns less than a month ago.

That’s the way it remained as Reid Redman and Matt Ramsey recorded perfect seventh and eighth innings to set the stage for Wittgren to earn his 20th save of the year. The hard-throwing right-hander surrendered four hits and the two runs, but got the final out to preserve the win.

The 10th consecutive win for the Suns needed every one of them to finish one game ahead of Mississippi. Had the two teams tied for the top spot, the Braves would have earned the playoff berth based on having won the second-half series with the Suns.

“We don’t have a lot of top prospects on this team, but these guys work hard every day and when they come to the park, all they care about is winning,” said Suns catcher J.T. Realmuto who two hits and an RBI.

Realmuto’s biggest contributions in this game came as a catcher.

His sweeping tag of a runner trying to score from first base in the third inning was Major League material. He then completed a 1-2-3 doubleplay grounder with a precision throw to first base with the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth inning.

“Last year there was a lot of tears and disappointment on that final day,” said Suns manager Andy Barkett, referring to the Suns’ 7-6 loss in 13 innings to Mississippi that prevented the Suns from making the playoffs. “Now, it’s tears of joy.

“For them to finish the season with this 10-game winning streak is remarkable and speaks of the resiliency of this team,” Barkett added. “It’s tough to sweep a series from a team and for our guys to do it back-to-back, it just shows how much they wanted to win and get into the playoffs.”

The North Division series finds Chattanooga traveling to Huntsville.

Tickets for Saturday’s playoff game will go on sale Tuesday at 11 a.m.

I would imagine a lot of people will wait until Saturday to decide to go , weather permitting, but it is time to show support for our baseball team and get the tickets a head of time. Nothing like going to to a baseball playoff game on a Saturday night.

Congrats to the Jacksonville Suns for earning their way to the Southern League playoffs. 10 in a row is crazy good stuff!

Really impressed with Andy Barkett and his staff. They are doing everything right, and the team is a great bunch of boys playing terrific baseball. Pitching has been splendid and the hits and breaks are going our way.

They play two playoff games in Mobile, Thursday and Friday, then return here to town Saturday night. The time listed for Saturday night is 7:05 PM.

Tickets for Suns' home game(s) are supposed to go on sale @ jaxsuns.com today (Tuesday).